Victoria Alonso Honored by SMPTE Engineering Society

Victoria Alonso He saluted the engineering community and signaled his return to filmmaking by accepting Honorary Membership of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers at the closing gala of the annual conference at the Ray Dolby Ballroom in Hollywood on Thursday. It could be his first return to the stage since his public debut in 2023. left with MarvelThe studio’s former head of physical production concluded his speech with the following words: “Thank you from the bottom of my heart. I look forward to returning and telling many, many, many more stories.

“I’ve been thinking a lot and staying quiet for the last 18 months, which is not who I am,” the producer and VFX vet said. “I chose tonight to come and perform for the first time out of respect for this community of thinkers. You are the core force that defines how we show up in our storytelling, who we are and how we show it, what it looks like, the depth with which we can show everything we think and imagine. “And you allow us to touch people, make them laugh, make them cry, God forbid, make them think.”

He started his acceptance speech by introducing the engineering community. “You are truly the troublemakers I want to hang out with…. Because you think the impossible is possible, you embody the capacity for the possible,” he said, adding, “I am incredibly honored that you invited me into a room of these beautiful, intelligent people. Storytellers respect you for what you can do. … Thank you for never, ever giving up. Thank you for continuing to push the boundaries of what is possible within our immediate impossibilities, and thank you for always allowing us to dream big.

He also spoke directly to “those who have had a bad day or a bad week” and said, “I’m here to let you know that bad moments will come and go. The only thing you have inside you, the one dream you haven’t fulfilled, the one possibility you haven’t tried because you’re busy or whatever your reasons are.” Remember this is your time, get out there and get the job done.”

SMPTE Honorary Membership, the highest honor of the association, was given to Ioan Allen from Dolby and retired ARRI general manager Franz Kraus at the night. Of Alonso’s selection, SMPTE said he “relentlessly conveys his vision of story to craftspeople and technicians and is a strong and outspoken champion for underrepresented groups in the entertainment industry.”

During his half-century at Dolby, honorary Allen worked closely with Ray Dolby to develop cinema sound, for which the duo earned Oscar statuettes in 1988. He is perhaps best known for his development of the Dolby Stereo film program and is also recognized for his work by SMPTE. Efforts to improve industry cooperation. “Standards are the most important thing SMPTE is involved in. “I am in awe of what has been achieved,” he said, appreciating the members who volunteered their time to do this work. “I have tremendous respect for what you have achieved, what you have achieved, and what you will achieve.”

Honorary Membership was also given to Franz Kraus, who spent four decades at ARRI and, as chief executive, led the company into the digital age by developing digital film scanners and the widely used Alexa cameras. ArriLaser received an Oscar statuette as the developer of the film recorder. “I couldn’t be here without an excellent engineering team and the advice given to us by early adopters of our products in Los Angeles. So I want to thank everyone, especially those who criticized (not just those who said we did a great job), because you don’t learn much (without honest feedback).”

During the ceremony, outgoing SMPTE president Renard Jenkins, NVIDIA’s Jensen Hsang (who was not in attendance), Universal’s Annie Chang-Ferguson, UHD Alliance’s Bill Baggelaar, educator Corey P. Carbonara, cloud innovator Marina Kalkanis and Disney Research Associate Lanny He presented his Presidential Declarations to. Snoot.

The close-knit engineering community was also awarded several medals. The David Sarnoff Medal was awarded to John Mailhot for his contributions to the introduction of the SMPTE ST 2110 standard for the transport of media over IP. The Medal for Excellence in Education was awarded to Chaitanya Chinchlikar for his work with Whistling Woods International, a Film and Creative Arts institute based in India.

The Workflow Systems Medal honored Epic Games’ Unreal Engine, and the Digital Rendering Medal was awarded to Jens-Rainer Ohm for his work on video compression standards. The James A. Lindner Medal for Archival Technology was awarded to Karen Cariani for her efforts in preserving and providing access to public broadcast archives.

10 new SMPTE Fellows were honored during the gala, including Alex Forsythe (senior director of science and technology at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences), Naveed Aslam, Peter Brightwell, Michel Proulx, Brian Quandt, Pierre-Hughes Routhier, Alexandre. Rouxel, Paola Sunna, Stuart C. Young, and Gene J. Zimmerman Jr.